 HOME | BLOG | ABOUT US | CONTACT US | PAST ISSUES | ADVERTISING RATES | RACK LOCATIONS The Myth of Noble Societies by Jeff Davidson Misinformation about how societies developed and how their people lived often leads to erroneous conclusions about how present-day society ought to be managed. Accordingly, what we understand to be historical realities are often distortions of the truth. The Rise of Misinformation In these "politically correct" times, in the area of social history in particular, too often pseudo-historians dispense misinformation in the form of "feel-good history," a term referred to by noted professor and distinguished historian Dr. Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., in his award-winning book, The Disuniting of America. Feel-good history is "history" designed to accent or embellish the accomplishments or nature of select groups for purposes other than conveying what historical records objectively reveal. American history, as a case in point, has become one of the most maligned of the historical disciplines. To be sure, the U.S. government reneged on treaties and destroyed cultures. Nonetheless, do misinformed or overzealous teachers and professors have the right to overturn decades of research and analysis in their efforts to present "the untold, untaught side of American history"? Many people today believe that the arrival of Europeans from 1492 was co-terminous with the introduction of disease to native populations. The Europeans did bring with them new diseases, such as smallpox, which proved to be more deadly to North American peoples than it was to Europeans, but by no means were Native Americans free of disease beforehand. Karl Reinhard, Ph.D., among the world's most prominent pathoecologists, observed that, "Native Americans had already accumulated quite a spectrum of parasitic diseases before the Europeans arrived. Take the Incas. We're looking at no less than three species of lice, not to mention different varieties of fleas, tapeworms, hookworms, the works." Many Americans today also believe that, historically, Native American cultures were superior in interacting with one another and maintaining a harmonious balance with the environment. As is well-documented by the Smithsonian Institute, during the hundred-year period in which Native Americans rode horses -- roughly 1785-1885 -- some of the nations engaged in the most hellish of warfare with each other. Without provocation, some Native North American nations decimated other, peace-loving nations. Braves earned respect in their own tribes by committing barbarous acts against members of others, often with no grounds for hostility. Captives were turned into slaves. Entire villages were raped and plundered, much as they had been in Central America since at least 500 A.D. Just Among Us Native Americans The Lakotas, mythologized in Kevin Costner's Dances With Wolves, had the nasty habit of hacking off the limbs and scalps of those whom they slaughtered. They would proudly bring such trophies back to camp where their tribe, particularly the women, would engage in victory celebrations that included parading with the severed limbs on sticks and dancing about with them hoisted high. On a continent as large as North America, most of the Native American nations were blessed with vast stretches of land, in some cases more than they could ever use. In that sense they were not "economic" societies. Natural resources, certainly in comparison to today, were plentiful. Because they did not live in economic societies, it is hard to determine to what degree many Native American nations practiced sound environmental policy. Vast sections of the southwestern United States, for example, were completely decimated by over-cutting. Dr. Charles L. Redman, an anthropologist at Arizona State University, says, "The idea of the primordial paradise, that pre-European societies were somehow great environmentalists, is romantic history." The cliff-dwellers, with their elaborate wooden structures, may have sealed the ecological fate of their region for all the centuries that have followed. In the Eastern U.S., the Cherokee removed such large swaths of forest along riverbanks -- incidentally some of the areas now most carefully protected by environmental legislation -- that Europeans entering some areas thought there were no trees. Still, many Native Americans loved the earth, lived in harmony with it, and lived in harmony with each other. Their poetry and chants often reveal the kinship they felt with the earth. Let us avoid the trap, however, of sanctifying those who were here before us because some of them, in some respects, embodied environmentally and socially redeeming virtues needed today. Jeff Davidson wrote "Breathing Space" and the "60 Second Self-Starter." Visit www.BreathingSpace.com for more information. |